Half of them were within rifle range, and the limber horses were the centre of a hot fire, as they were destined to be at a shorter range and with more disastrous effect at the Tugela.

That the same tactics should have been adopted at two widely sundered points shows with what care the details of the war had been pre-arranged by the Boer leaders.

'Before I got my horses out,' says an officer, 'they shot one of my drivers and two horses and brought down my own horse.

When we got the gun round one of the gunners was shot through the brain and fell at my feet.

Another was shot while bringing up shell.